In an effort to increase hospital capacity amid the current COVID-19 surge, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday announced \u201cunprecedented\u201d flexibilities around providing hospital-level care for patients in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similar to CMS\u2019s recent allowances surrounding telehealth, the agency\u2019s latest efforts are focused on lifting barriers that could potentially hinder care during the public health emergency, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday\u2019s flexibilities aren\u2019t coming out of thin air. Instead, they build off the success and learnings of the nation\u2019s existing hospital-at-home models, pioneered by organizations like Johns Hopkins and Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith new areas across the country experiencing significant challenges to the capacity of their health care systems, our job is to make sure that CMS regulations are not standing in the way of patient care for COVID-19 and beyond,\u201d Verma said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through CMS\u2019s \u201cAcute Hospital Care At Home program,\u201d eligible hospitals will be granted \u201cunprecedented\u201d and \u201ccomprehensive\u201d regulatory flexibilities to treat certain patients in their homes. The agency clarified the new flexibilities are aimed at acute care in the home and very different from \u201ctraditional home health services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to building new capacity, CMS\u2019s program is also a means to support established hospital-at-home programs, which have mostly had to rely on payment mechanisms outside of the Medicare fee-for-service world. CMS believes that with proper monitoring and treatment, acute conditions such as asthma, congestive heart failure, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be treated in the home setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday\u2019s move received praise from Dr. Bruce Leff, a hospital-at-home expert and the director of the Center for Transformative Geriatric Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCMS made a terrific decision in recognizing the value of hospital-at-home care for the public health emergency,\u201d Leff told Home Health Care News in an email. \u201cHospital-at-home is well proven to provide high-quality hospital-level care in patients\u2019 homes for many acute conditions \u2014 and patients and their families love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, the move drew applause from Contessa, a company that helps organizations provide hospital-level care in the home through its Home Recovery Care model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven the tremendous strain COVID-19 is putting on our health care system, access to home hospital care has never been more important,\u201d Travis Messina, CEO of the company, said in an email. \u201cThe teams at CMS and CMMI expertly executed this hospital-driven model. Hospital-level care requires appropriate clinical oversight from hospital leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messina added that his team is \u201cthrilled\u201d Mount Sinai Health System, one of Contessa\u2019s partners, was already approved for CMS\u2019s new model due to its extensive experience with the hospital-at-home concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the program, participating hospitals will be required to implement screening protocols prior to delivering care in the home. Participants will need to screen for both medical and non-medical factors, including working utilities, assessment of physical barriers and screenings for domestic-violence concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participating hospitals will also need to provide in-person physician evaluation before starting care in the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, a registered nurse is required to perform evaluations on each patient \u2014 in person or remotely \u2014 daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAcute Hospital Care at Home is for beneficiaries who require acute in-patient admission to a hospital and who require at least daily rounding by a physician and a medical team monitoring their care needs on an ongoing basis,\u201d CMS noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday\u2019s announcement from CMS has roots in its Hospitals Without Walls program, which was first established in March. CMS\u2019s Hospitals Without Walls program loosened regulatory restrictions in order to enable hospitals to provide services in other settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, the hospital-at-home model has gained a reputation for providing better outcomes at a lower cost. Despite this, the model has still mostly existed as a niche service line for providers in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, the COVID-19 emergency has served as a catalyst for renewed interest in the model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mount Sinai Health System, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and UnityPoint Health are being approved for CMS\u2019s new program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a new level of crisis response with COVID-19, and CMS is leveraging the latest innovations and technology to help health care systems that are facing significant challenges to increase their capacity to make sure patients get the care they need,\u201d Verma\u2019s statement continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an effort to increase hospital capacity amid the current COVID-19 surge, the U.S. Centers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,186,189,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-medicare","category-covid-19-coronavirus","category-medicaid"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n